New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1887-07-10

order, to bring his accounts for adjustment Never.
surely. were two murders committed moro jocundly
and light-heartedy than those which Mr.. lncoul
perpetrates, incidentally as it were. This no doubt
Is the result of the philosophy which underhes the
story Nobody believes in anything ct all earnestly
in this curious book Lenox and MAZDA and Mr.
Incoul are all either AgnOstics or Pessimists.
They know far too much Of life
to be capable Of illusions and they
have penetrated too deeply into the frauds
Of existence to retain much moral conviction.
After ALL they seem TO say IL is all in the end
| whether we are what's conveDtionally formed good
| or bad whether wo obey ordinances or Ignore
them; whether we live for ourselves alone or for
Others. In effect they do not trouble themselves
much about living for others. They please them
selves when possible. Mr. Inooul delivers himself
up to the ferooity of his jealousy as frankly and
unconscousy as would a savage He pursues his
reveage with the Same candid immortality. He
oonsummates it with the GOODNESS and dellberation
| of Byzantine Greek an Iroquois Indian. Con-
science does not disturb him After committing
double murder, compromising an atrocious act OF
treason and fraud, he recreates his mind by gong
| over his courIers accounts Certainly he is re-
markable man. but his chief distinction lies In his
value as an illustration. He Is product OF Pess-
mIsm. Mr. Status Is o brilliant writer. This
story Is exceedingly well written 1t indeed con-
tains here and there eroursns the raison d. ctre
of which Is not obvious as, for example, the cats-
logue Of books In the library Of the villa at
Biarr1ta. 1t could hardly havo been necessary
thus to advertise the authors acquaintance with
Frenoh erotio literature Of the kind which every
gentlemans library ought to be without But the
book is peculiar IN many points. and despite Its
cleverness it leaves q bad taste in the mouth The
truth is that Pessmism may pass In the closet, but
IL will not answer to live with.
"a Game of Chance Is o strong novel, but
study the realism Of which, however incontestable.
is not pleasant 1t is a story of bitter experience
hardening young girl. and of the impa-
thence of comparative poverty tempting
young man into rulnous speculation. The girl has
had before her all her life the spectacle of fatally
speculative father and a soured. broken pirited
mother The former, who reminds US occasionally
OF Harold Skimpoe, completes the bcggary OF his
family In striving to redeem past losses and then
dies conveniently. Thereupon two suitors for the
girl Barbara appear. One. Oswald Creagh, is an
uncultured, strong. beautiful brute of fellow,
endowed with great persistence and energy. The
other, Sidney L0throp, an American scion or a
noble English family, is weaker of nature. but
much more refined and Of q higher strain. Bar
bara marries Lothrop, who is lawyer with small
practice and slender private income. She Is not
In love with him. nor does she pretend to be- She
Is In fact quite heartess. cold, calculating. and
selfish with all the absorption of the worst type of
the period. moro unlovable young woman 1t
would be difficult 20 imagine. She is beautiful and
intelligent, but she is always thinking of her own
future, and only marries Lothrop because she is
destitute and she hopes TO climb through him. For
a time they live comfortably. Then he commits
the folly Of living upon tho capital OF
his private income discounting profess
sional SUCCESSES neither In sight nor TO
arrive This fund exhausted. the pair are
forced to retrench. to leave the city and take up
dreary and squaid clearinghouse life in the
country. Lothrop eager to restore Barbara to COM
fort, speculates in Wall Street. and continues to
lose money. All this time Barbara is growing hard
err colder and more dissatisfied with him. while he,
infected by the gamblers passion. presently cheats
himself into the belief that he Is justified in risk
ing the small remnant Of fortune remaining TO his
wife and her mother. He plays this last card and
loses Barbara on learning what has happened per-
ccives that the situation IL desperate and think
ing, as usual, Of herself alone, she tells her dis
tracted husband that so long he lives her future
will be hopeless. Brain fever strikes the ruined
gambler down, but he survives the crisis, and his
recovery Is announced as probable when he takes
the matter into his own hands and with Barbara's
knowledge and virtual consent. commits suicide.
Oswald Crcagh has meantime, after being refused
by Barbara, plunged into speculation and made q
million of money. He now offers himself again to
tho young widow. and she marries him, only to
learn that he has lost all his money, and that she
will have to live henecforth in the droary village
from which she has been struggling all her life TO
escape At the last momen. she learns that had
Lothrop lived two DAYS longer he would have sue
cecded to the title and estates OF an English earl
dom. 1t Is curious that though all her
bad uO,k hnp fha dan
of speculation, she rather encourages than checks
Lothrop in his Wall Street ventures, and that
whereas she is represented as calculating and
unimpressonable, she nevertheless acts IN
manner not distinguishable IN essentials from the
ways of tho type of woman she affects to despise
No really d-hearted and ambitious girl in her
position would have married Lothrop; or, having
married so weak q man. would have let him drift
or, having rid herself of him by something very
like MURDER would have accepted his rival without
the least scrutiny into his position When we
regard Barbara's speech indeed we find abundant
evidence of cyncism and even too much of
worldly wisdom which Is little reflected in her
conduct The contrast is singular. In converse
ton she is bright. keen far-seeng at profound
and mercilegs In criticism, seizing the weak points
OF men unerringly and emphasizing them ncisvely.
In action she seems to forget all her wise saws and
modern instances and succumbs to every tempta-
top. stumbles into every pitfsll with which her
path Is infested. She is fact a doctrlnaire; n
Becky Sharpe of the cabinet. Triumphant In
theory, she fails utterly IN practice. and when tho
end is reached one feels that more detestable
heroine never suffered better deserved fate, but
that after all she is too discordant with herself to
excite strong apprehension or indeed emotion of
any kind.
Mr. Julian Hawthorne, IN collaboration with In |
spector Byrnes, has written story which is GER
tainly fit to take place with almost any of Gabo-
riaus detective novels. Muob.of it-though pre-
cisely how much cannot be indicated-is a recital |
of fact, the murder of Louis Hanier by Mike Nc |
Gloin and the capture, trial and execution of the
L.